Chapter 291: Deathbed
Liu Shengzhan narrowed his eyes, the memories deep in his mind gradually stirred by the guard, and he smiled as he interrupted:
“Hmm, not bad. I remember this matter. Let me test you. Space Force Li Jian, as our first person to land on the Moon, what was the first sentence he said upon landing?”
“Report Command Headquarters, I have successfully exited the cabin, state good!”
The guard blurted it out without the slightest hesitation.
“Hahaha, that’s the sentence. Let me reveal some private information to you: this kid wasn’t originally arranged to be the first to land on the Moon at that time.”
“Ah?”
Liu Shengzhan was very satisfied with the surprised expression of the young guard in front of him. These young people nowadays, despite knowing all the publicly available information about the Space Force like the back of their hands, could be easily impressed by him casually revealing some harmless internal tidbits.
“Hehe, then guess who was originally arranged? Here’s a hint: this person was on our meritorious rocket, Star-2, heading to the Moon together at that time.”
The guard was clearly an excellent conversation partner. After hearing this, he instantly recalled the names of the three astronauts from the documentary.
He Guozhang, Li Jian, and Shi Xianliang, who was still in service, had been promoted to Space Force Major General, and was currently stationed at the Venus Base of the Black Tortoise Legion, responsible for defense there.
“Major General Shi?”
The guard hesitated for a moment. The reason he answered this way was mainly because among the three, He Guozhang and Li Jian had both ‘passed away’, while as a military person, he naturally had the deepest impression of Major General Shi, who was still alive.
“Heh, wrong guess, it’s little He, didn’t expect that, did you.”
“Ah?”
Liu Shengzhan, listening to the other’s surprise, couldn’t help but show a hint of pride on his aged face.
“Didn’t expect that, huh? Let me tell you, at that time the Space Force hadn’t been established yet, and under our military headquarters there was only one ‘Aerospace Force’, the concept was still quite vague, generally selecting a very small number from all levels of the entire army, the top talents in various professional knowledge, for special training in aerospace.
And among them, little He, as an astronaut who had successfully carried out multiple space missions, was naturally ranked first on the moon landing list.
But.
Little He is a good man, after the final personnel order was confirmed, he very selflessly gave this opportunity of supreme glory to Li Jian.”
In the corridor of the Space Hub, the old and the young walked slowly, and various personnel passing by them all sincerely stopped and saluted solemnly upon seeing this elderly person.
However, the elderly person was clearly immersed in distant memories and didn’t notice these salutes.
If at the beginning it was the guard recounting the content of the ‘Space Force Development History’ documentary, now this topic was completely taken over by the elderly person muttering to himself in his memories.
“Com”
The guard suddenly froze, then covered his mouth.
Immediately after, he handed the elderly person he was supporting on one side to Fan Ren who had suddenly appeared in front of him, and to another person he found unfamiliar yet somehow recognizable.
Fan Ren supported Liu Shengzhan, Li Jian did the same on the other side, and under the Space Hub’s originally not very obvious self-rotating gravity,
At this moment, he couldn’t bear for the elderly person to carry any more weight on that body which could almost be blown away by a gust of wind.
“Later on, Little Li and Little Shi guarded there for a full half year on that desolate, uninhabited gray planet 300,000 kilometers from Earth.
It was thanks to these two boys’ persistence that our Guanghan Palace Base took its initial shape.
And after that, Little Li stayed stationed at Guanghan Palace Base for another ten years as steadfastly as ever. Under his management, Guanghan Palace Base operated for ten years without a single safety incident, and it even underwent Phase Two expansion project during this period. During this time, Guanghan Palace Base, which was originally expected to enter a period of chaos, was still arranged by him in perfect order, and the entire production tasks were not delayed at all.
Fan Ren and Li Jian supported the elderly person’s frail body to the hall square at the end of the corridor and stopped at a seat where sunlight was just shining in.
They quietly listened to the elderly person’s recounting; these were also memories belonging to their generation.
Unbeknownst to them, the entire square, with this seat as the center, was already densely packed with Space Hub staff wearing various work clothes.
At this moment, in these people’s eyes, it was as if they were on a pilgrimage, gazing at the three people seated in front of them.
One is the military soul of human civilization. Though already elderly, that one-of-a-kind marshal uniform in the world worn on his body gives the impression that he is still as tall and imposing as before.
And the other was Fan Ren, the then Chairman of the Human Civilization Committee, known to all of humanity.
His experiences need not be described in too much detail.
Merely by splitting Xinghai Technology and converting all of it into shared assets of human civilization, he thoroughly earned the respect of everyone.
However, the tall, muscular dark-faced man standing beside them was directly regarded as a bodyguard and not recognized by the crowd.
This was mainly Li Jian deliberately applying black skin tone makeup on his face for coming to the Solar System today to meet this elderly person who was extremely important to his life.
Fan Ren scanned the increasingly gathering crowd at the scene. He did not stop them but silently raised his index finger to his lips, making a silencing gesture, then quietly stayed by the elderly person’s side.
Sometimes, he was also very annoyed. This generation of Great Xia Leaders were extremely stubborn. No matter how he tried to persuade them, they absolutely refused to enter the Hibernation Pod and extend their lifespan in this indirect way of prolonging life through Hibernation.
It was as if that was an extremely irresponsible choice for them.
Once, the sentence Fan Ren heard Ye Rongshan say the most was “Time, I don’t have that much time to waste on that.”
Now, this elderly person in front of him was still holding the line at the forefront of the Space Force even as his life was nearly at its end.
Even walking had become difficult, but the elderly person still persisted in the daily chief rotation work, “staying” in the command hall.
Thinking of this, his gaze couldn’t help but turn to Li Jian beside the elderly person.
Strictly speaking, even Li Jian, who now appears to still have robust physical fitness over there, has reached the age of 170.
He also had only 30 years of time left until the end of his lifespan.
And this brother who came from that era was equally very stubborn, holding the same disdain for the concept of the hibernation pod as the elderly person.
Regarding this, Fan Ren was truly helpless.
He so wanted that in his long life, there could be as many familiar people as possible accompanying him all the way.
